The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
It had been a fortified location since September 17, 1776, when New Spain established the presidio to gain a foothold in Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico in 1820, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848. As part of a military reduction program under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process from 1988, Congress voted to end the Presidio's status as an active military installation of the U.S. Army. On October 1, 1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use.
In 1996, the United States Congress created the Presidio Trust to oversee and manage the interior 80% of the park's lands, with the National Park Service managing the coastal 20%. In a first-of-its-kind structure, Congress mandated that the Presidio Trust make the Presidio financially self-sufficient by 2013. The Presidio achieved the goal in 2005, eight years ahead of the deadline.
The Presidio is at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and is crossed by the bridge approach road.
The park has many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate itself, the Bridge, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized as a California Historical Landmark in 1933 and as a National Historic Landmark in 1962.
The visitor centers are operated by the National Park Service:
Presidio Visitor Center: offers changing exhibits about the Presidio, information about sights and activities in the park, and a bookstore. The Presidio Transit Center is located adjacent to this visitor center and is served by the Presidio Go Shuttle and Muni bus routes.
Battery Chamberlin: seacoast defense museum and artillery display at Baker Beach built in 1904.
Fort Point: 1861 brick and granite fortification under the Golden Gate Bridge. The visitor center, open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, offers video orientations, guided tours, self-guiding materials, exhibits, and a bookstore.
Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center: This center offers hands-on marine-life exhibits and is located in a historic Coast Guard Station at the west end of Crissy Field. The building was used by the Coast Guard from 1890 to 1990.
Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion: opened May 2012 for the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge; the Pavilion is the first visitor center in the history of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is located just east of the southern end of the bridge.
Crissy Field Center: (former Air Service/Air Corps/Army Air Forces airfield) is an urban environmental education center with programs for schools, public workshops, after-school programs, summer camps, and more. The center is operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and overlooks a restored tidal marsh. The facilities include interactive environmental exhibits, a media lab, a resource library, an art workshop, a science lab, a gathering room, a teaching kitchen, a café, and a bookstore.
The Presidio Officers Club is one of San Francisco’s two oldest buildings, containing walls that were erected by the Spanish around the founding of the Presidio. The mesa room shows all the different layers of the building dating back to the 1790’s adobe brick. The building was remodeled and reopened in 2014 to include a free history museum that tells the story of the Presidio as well as a bar and restaurant and gathering spaces.
A major component of the Presidio's attractions is the Presidio Tunnel Tops, which has been considered the number one thing to do in San Francisco by USA Today and U.S. News & World Report. The Park was created a 14-acre park (5.7 ha) on top of the tunneled portions of Doyle Drive. The park contains several meadows and walking trails, along with viewpoints for major landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge. Negotiations between Caltrans, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and the Presidio Trust to finalize the land transfer for the park lasted from 2015 to 2018. The budget for the park was $100 million, funded with public funds from the Presidio Trust and private contributions. The park was designed by the creators of New York City’s High Line. The park opened for public use on July 17, 2022. In July 2025, Outpost Meadow, a 1.5 acre expansion opened to the public. Il Parco, a cafe is located at the edge of the Tunnel Tops.
The Presidio was originally a Spanish fort sited by Juan Bautista de Anza on March 28, 1776, built by a party led by José Joaquín Moraga later that year. The limestone used to build the presidio was mined by Ohlones at the Rockaway Quarry. In 1783, the Presidio's garrison numbered only 33 men. Upon Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, it was briefly operated as a Mexican fortification. The Presidio was seized by the U.S. military at the start of the Mexican–American War in 1846. It was officially reopened by the Americans in 1848 and became home to several army headquarters and units, the last being the United States 6th Army. Several famous U.S. generals, such as William Tecumseh Sherman, George Henry Thomas, and John J. Pershing, made their homes here.
During its long history, the Presidio was involved in most of America's military engagements in the Pacific Rim. Importantly, it was the assembly point for army forces that invaded the Philippines during the Spanish–American War, America's first significant military engagement in the region.
Beginning in the 1890s, the Presidio was home to the Letterman Army Medical Center (LAMC), named in 1911 for Jonathan Letterman, the medical director of the Civil War–era Army of the Potomac. LAMC provided thousands of war-wounded with high-quality medical care during every US foreign conflict of the 20th century.
One of the last two remaining cemeteries within the city's limits is the San Francisco National Cemetery. Among the military personnel interred there are General Frederick Funston, hero of the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War and commanding officer of the Presidio at the time of the 1906 earthquake; and General Irvin McDowell, a Union Army commander who lost the First Battle of Bull Run.